California Cookbook

Love goddess cake

Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

By Susan LaTempa | Sept. 17, 2003

Is there any dessert more beloved than chocolate cake? It's the bestseller on sophisticated menus, and the staple of children's birthday parties. It's the decadent treat worth breaking your diet for, and the comfort food that you never tire of. ...
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Step 1In a small pan, bring the cream to a simmer over high heat. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Let the mixture stand until the chocolate softens, about 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.

Step 2Whisk in the chili powders. Let the mixture stand until completely cooled, about half an hour. With an electric mixer at medium speed, beat in the butter, one tablespoon at a time, until smooth. Do not overbeat. Cover with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature until ready to use.

Whipped cream frosting

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Step 1Pour the whipping cream into a chilled medium mixing bowl. With an electric mixture on medium speed, slowly beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer to high and beat until stiff. Do not overbeat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cake

1/2 tablespoon butter, for the pans

1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 cup boiling water

1 cup water at room temperature

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ancho chili powder

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 vanilla beans, ground in a coffee grinder (or 2 teaspoons extract)

Filling

Whipped cream frosting

Edible flower petals for garnish

Step 1Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch round pans (2 inches deep). Line the pans with parchment and dust with flour. Tap out the excess.

Step 2Whisk the cocoa and boiling water in medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in the room-temperature water and let stand until the mixture cools.

Step 4Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixture at high speed until the mixture is light in color and texture, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the ground vanilla beans or extract.

Step 5On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of the cocoa mixture, scraping the bowl often until smooth.

Step 6Spread the batter evenly in the pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and cool completely.

Step 7Place one cake layer upside-down on a cake plate. Spread with all of the chocolate filling. Top with the other cake layer, right side up.

Step 8Spread a thin layer of the whipped cream frosting over the top and sides of the cake to affix any crumbs to the cake so they won't mar the white frosting. Then continue to frost the cake, trying not to disturb the first coat. Refrigerate (up to 8 hours ahead). If chilled, let stand 30 minutes before serving. Just before serving, decorate with flower petals.

It's the bestseller on sophisticated menus, and the staple of children's birthday parties. It's the decadent treat worth breaking your diet for, and the comfort food that you never tire of. We've adored it -- in all its many forms -- for more than 400 years, when the first recipes for chocolate cake were written down in northern Italy.

Back then, a torta di cioccolata might have been embellished with almonds or hazelnuts. A hundred years later, a German prince's pastry chef added apricot preserves to make the Sacher torte. In early 20th century America, devil's food cake was so popular that every home cook had a much-treasured recipe with some secret ingredient, be it mayonnaise or Coca-Cola. Adding a little something special to chocolate cake seems to be as irresistible as the dessert itself.

Today's chefs are carrying on the tradition, partly inspired by a new generation of high-cacao chocolate. This extra-dark chocolate has a bitter edge that blends well with a whole range of spices, herbs and other ingredients. When you order chocolate cake for dessert, you never know what you're going to get -- tall and fluffy or dense and fudgy, sweet and silky or chunky and bitter? -- because chefs keep reinventing this already fabulous invention.

Some tinker with the cake, some with the icing or filling.

At Engine Co. No. 28, for example, the classic double-chocolate layer cake created by founding executive chef Ed Kasky has a silky ganache filling and frosting. The recipe updates the all-American chocolate cake with the addition of a flavor-intensifying ingredient: coffee. (The current executive chef, Kenneth McCaskill, says that pastry chefs have been known to substitute espresso for even more intensity.)

This cake calls for three kinds of chocolate: cocoa powder, chopped semisweet chocolate and chopped bittersweet chocolate. It's a moist, richly flavored cake. Enjoy it with -- what else? -- a cup of strong coffee.

The cake created by pastry chef Julie Hewitt of Restaurant Halie in Pasadena is deliciously intriguing -- a dense truffle-like cake, with a bright hint of herbaceousness.

"I was in the kitchen trying to imagine what I could combine with chocolate," explains Hewitt, "and I was going to chop some chocolate. I borrowed a knife from a prep cook who was chopping fresh bay laurel leaves and the aroma just hit me. Then it was, 'What if I put it in the ganache?' "

Hewitt, who previously worked under Sherry Yard at Spago, tweaked a chocolate truffle cake recipe to develop an almost-flourless, not-too-sweet, very sophisticated dessert. At Restaurant Halie, it's served with blackberry compote and blackberry ice cream. We liked it naked, and thought a glass of Port would make a fine partner.

On the most basic level, it combines the light, sweet texture of a towering chocolate layer cake with a subtle kick of chile. But that description doesn't come close to capturing the effect. On first bite, the chiles' heat is subdued, and you get a delicate cake with a surprising depth of flavor. Then, seconds later, there's a sensation of fireworks.

"I like the complexity of flavor," says Peck, "The Old World ancient ingredients." She suggests serving it with a coffee-flavored tequila liqueur to continue the roasted flavors.